Naval units
Unlike the land army, naval units are extremely costly to maintain. One destroyer is roughly worth 3 normal French light tanks, and so you should be careful about what units you build for the navy, as many of these units are hard to build. Naval unit roster *Pos 1: Destroyer/Guard ship/Aviso; Battle cruiser; Submarine/U-boat/I-boat; Air carrier; Trawler *Pos 2: Cruiser/Kirov/Baltimore; Capital ship class; S-boat/Yamato-class/MAS; (French Air carrier upgrade) Population cost (mainstream) *Trawler, light ship class, destroyer, submarine - 1 *Cruiser, battle cruiser, capital ship - 2 *Carrier, super capital ship - 4 Mainstream units Destroyer *Industrial Age vanilla skin. *Kills submarines, and has medium-level armament and armour. *Deals minimal damage against air targets *Fairly cheap Cruiser *Industrial Age vanilla dreadnought *Somewhat poor speed, but excellent armour and armaments. *Capable of engaging air, but is rather weak *Subceptible to submarine attack *Costly Trawler *Weak unit that is armed with a machine gun, and capable of gathering fish from the ocean. Broadly put, use destroyers for their anti-air, anti-submarine capabilities, and the costlier but more powerful cruiser against surface naval targets. Restricted units Battle cruiser *Available only to the powers - see major powers and minor powers for more info. *Modern Age vanilla skin *Has more firepower than the destroyer, but is meant for fast hit-and-run flanking attacks, and not battles against battle cruisers. *Most useful against air targets *Somewhat cheap Air carrier *Costly, slow unit, vulnerable to submarines, but has a powerful complement of torpedo bombers. *The number of torpedo bombers is increased for different factions (along with the addition of special units) to maintain balance *Carriers can be built by all major powers except Russia. Submarine *Stealthy bane of heavy ships, but subceptible to destroyers and cruisers. *Costly, and available only to major powers such as France or Germany. *Submarines have enough payload to destroy civvy shipping, and suffer almost no damage from capital ships! Battle cruisers are a more destructive version of a destroyer, and are also capable of high speed and anti-aircraft support. Use these units to counter the cheaper but weaker destroyers and cruisers Capital ship Capital ships are the biggest floating weapons around, and come in different sizes and shapes, and are available only to the 7 major powers. Capital ships are not only powerful, but they have different capabilities - that comes with a handicap. For instance, the Iowa-class battleship is the fastest-sailing, fastest-producing and cheapest capital ship, but clearly is outmatched by other capital ships such as the Bismarck-class battleship, in terms of firepower and armour. Capital ships are so big that (wht the possible exception of British and Russian capital ships) they canot be garrisoned in dockyards. NOTE: The Japanese receive 2 different capital ships, instead of 1. See the following list for more details: Unique units KNIL Note: unlike other factions, the KNIL do not have the capital ship or the aircraft carrier. Battle Cruiser *''Java''-class light cruiser - Weakest but fastest-moving, fastest-hitting and cheapest of all cruiser-type ships. Empire of Japan Capital ships *''Kongo''-class battleship - has weaker armour, slower speed but good guns. The only difference between Kongo and other ships is that she comes out earlier than other warships. *''Yamato''-class super battleship - immensely huge, powerful warship, comparable with the Bismarck class. But with poor speed, a construction penalty and a high pricetag to boot. Note-like all warships, Yamato is not an upgrade, but still requires some technologies to be built. Submarines *I-boat - large submarine capable of carrying aircraft. Not as powerful as an air carrier, but capable of all sorts of mayhem (relies on Rise of Options) British Commonwealth As a general rule, British ships are served by 3 main advantages: they have good range, excellent LOS, and the ability to regenerate after a battle. This ability is enhanced compared with tanks and infantry on land. Aircraft carriers *''Ark Royal'' - in addition to having good LOS and a variety of good torpedo bombers, Ark Royal has an enhanced regeneration capability and a slight speed bonus. Battle cruisers *''Town''-class cruiser - average power and durability, compared to the Aviso-type ships of France and Portugal, but can easily shoot them from afar. Capital ships *''Nelson''-class battleship - average power and durability, but with good LOS, and can easily shoot from afar. Several Nelsons can take on a Bismarck, but might have problems with the bigger Yamato. You must have some ancillary research completed to unlock this ship. Germany Capital ships *''Bismarck''-class battleship - strong, immensely powerful, but one of the slowest to move - yet the slowest to die nonetheless in a heated exchange. Note-''Bismarck'' requires some technologies to be built. Submarines *U-boat - Replaces submarine, and is highly advanced, with a variety of tricks, such as better speed and weapon range than other submarines. Special *S-boat (shared with Spain) - unlike other warships, this is a weak, but cheap-producing gunboat, capable of taking out submarine and surface targets, and very effective at taking out air. Unlike other warships, the S-boat is known for being built of both timber and oil. Capital ships *''Nelson''-class cruiser - average power and durability, but with good LOS, and can easily shoot from afar. Several Nelsons can take on a Bismarck, but might have problems with the bigger Yamato. You must have some ancillary research completed to unlock this ship. USSR Capital ships *''Soyuz''-class battleship - Average-performance battleship, with a cheap pricetag, but hidden high ramp costs in metal, and a long gestation period. To create many capital ships, Russia must build as many naval facilities as it can. A player will then be forced to decide what sort of military force it needs, because its navy requires high micromanaging. Cruisers *''Kirov''-class heavy cruiser - as with the Soyuz battleship, the Kirov also can be created in huge numbers initially, before it is slowed by its ramp cost in metal. slightly slower to build, but not as indefatigably difficult to build as the Soyuz. Destroyer *Guard ship - replaces both the destroyer and the battle cruiser. Guard ships have the cost, build time and capabilities of a destroyer, yet are as heavy as a battle cruiser. This makes them good, nonetheless, for harbour duty since you can create many of these warships to guard ports by spamming them. Kingdom of Italy Capital ships *''Vittorio Veneto''-class battleship - average hull strength and weak range, but highly powerful main guns and engine. Unlike many other capital ships, Vittorio Veneto doesn't need any auxiliary technologies to be created. Special *MAS - an exact copy of the S-boat, except that it comes out 1 age later than the German S-boat. I must see if this ship is capable of creating midget submarines. France Capital ships *''Richelieu''-class battleship - Better than the Vittorio Veneto class but with a higher cost, and some ancillary research required. Destroyers *Aviso cruiser (shared with Portugal): replaces destroyer; has better firepower, armour and a better propensity for engaging aircraft. France doesn't build destroyers. Aircraft carriers *''Béarn'' class - early aircraft carrier, is cheap to build but of inferior quality; can be upgraded later on to Joffre class. United States of America Capital ships *''Iowa''-class battleship - Average-strength battleship. Capable of outranging warships like the Vittorio Veneto class, but still fragile against other ships, especially such as Bismarck-class or Yamato-class warships. It however is distinguished from other factions by having a lower pop cost, and a fast build time. Theoretically, the USA can churn out quite a number of these warships. Cruiser *''Baltimore''-class cruiser - America doesn't build battle cruisers, it just upgrades its cruisers to heavy cruisers. The Baltimore-class heavy cruiser is an upgrade of the battle cruiser - slightly more expensive than the destroyer, but easier to build and has the following benefits: it's as fast an manoeuvreable as any cruiser, but has enough firepower and hull strength approximating the battle cruiser. Aircraft carriers *'Yorktown''-class - the best carrier in the whole game, with a good operational range. Category:Naval